The Scripture on Great Peace: The Taiping jing and the Beginnings of Daoism

This first Western-language translation of one of the great books of the Daoist religious tradition, the Taiping jing, or "Scripture on Great Peace," documents early Chinese medieval thought and lays the groundwork for a more complete understanding of Daoism’s origins. Barbara Hendrischke, a leading expert on the Taiping jing in the West, has spent twenty-five years on this magisterial translation, which includes notes that contextualize the scripture’s political and religious significance.

Virtually unknown to scholars until the 1970s, the Taiping jing raises the hope for salvation in a practical manner by instructing men and women how to appease heaven and satisfy earth and thereby reverse the fate that thousands of years of human wrongdoing has brought about. The scripture stems from the beginnings of the Daoist religious movement, when ideas contained in the ancient Laoziwere spread with missionary fervor among the population at large. The Taiping jing demonstrates how early Chinese medieval thought arose from the breakdown of the old imperial order and replaced it with a vision of a new, more diverse and fair society that would integrate outsiders—in particular women and people of a non-Chinese background.

Beliebte Passagen

Seite 10 - Thus he recorded even those assemblies outside (his own State) which failed to reach agreement, and mentioned the great officials even of small States Coming to the age which he (personally) witnessed, he made evident that there was an order (arising) of Great Peace (Thai Phing) . At this time the barbarian tribes became part of the feudal hierarchy, and the whole (known) world, far and near, large and small, was like one. Hence he directed his mind still more profoundly to making a detailed record...

Seite 8 - When reward and punishment were clear, foolish and wise were properly placed, noble and base occupied their stations, worthy and inadequate were seen for what they were; invariably they were allotted tasks according to their abilities, invariably their tasks derived from their titles. This is how one served the man above or was pastor to the men below, put other things in order or cultivated one's own person. Cleverness and strategy were unused.

Über den Autor (2007)

Barbara Hendrischke is Senior Research Fellow in the School of Modern Languages at the University of New South Wales. She is author of Wen-tzu—Ein Beitrag zur Problematik und zum Verständnis eines taoistischen Textes and Taiping jing: The Origin and Transmission of the ‘Scripture on General Welfare’—The history of an unofficial text.